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If you need one more reason to root for 25-year-old Tori Bowie, the reigning U.S. 100 meters women's champion who grew up in the tiny Sand Hill community in Rankin County, I suggest you watch the hour-long documentary “Doped: The Dirty Side of Sports."

Bowie, a two-sport star at Pisgah High School who became a track and field star at the University of Southern Mississippi, is one of the featured athletes who takes a firm stand against using performance-enhancing drugs.

She is exactly what the sport of track and field needs heading into the 2016 summer Olympics in Brazil: Someone willing to speak out while excelling without cheating.

In fact, athletes from all sports could learn a thing or two from Bowie.

“First and foremost, I think each athlete has to focus on themselves and their capabilities and work the right way to be the best they can be,” Bowie said in a phone interview. “I honestly believe the cheaters will get caught eventually. And I want them caught.”

I’ve been a sports fan all my life. I’ve known about doping in the sports world, but I don’t think I understood the basics of testing, masking and the blind eye our major sports turned to doping until I watched the documentary. It was superbly done. And, at times, heartbreaking.

It tells the story of U.S. shot put star Adam Nelson of Atlanta. On his final toss in the 2004 Olympic games in Athens, Greece, Nelson beat everyone by more than a foot. But he was flagged for stepping slightly outside the ring during the toss. The gold medal went to Ukranian Yuriy Bilinog. Nelson won the silver.

The difference in the gold and silver was enormous. Nelson lost his sponsors, which cost him millions of dollars.

Nine years passed before the International Olympic Committee — when media reports surfaced that Bilinog was doping when he won the gold — looked at the 2004 tests again. Bilinog had, indeed, tested positive and was disqualified. Nelson finally received his gold medal from the IOC at a food court at the Atlanta airport.

One of the most disheartening facts revealed in the documentary was when former IOC vice president Dick Pound contacted America’s major sports — NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL — and offered to share the IOC’s drug-testing approach by an independent company, the Network of Alcohol and Other Drug Agencies, or NADA.

Pound said he was told by each organization, “We have no doping problem.”

If you’re a sports fan at all, you realize how naive, arrogant and lame their claim turned out to be. The leagues are still paying for such stupidity, one way or another.

At USM, she was known more as a long jumper, winning the Conference USA meet and placing second in the NCAA championships in 2012, her senior season.

When she turned pro in 2013 after earning a degree in interdisciplinary studies, she continued competing in sprints and the long jump.

But after a year, Bowie began focusing on sprinting. She was named Breakout Sprinter of the Year. Her 10.80 100-meter time was the fastest by a woman in 2014. And her 10.81 in the world championships in Beijing was the second-fastest by a woman.

Considering that Bowie is still learning the nuances of sprinting — getting out of the starting blocks cleanly, for instance — her potential is enormous.

And it’s cool that she has made this progress with good old-fashioned work and sweat, not by filling her body full of banned substances.

How can I say that and feel comfortable standing behind it? Because of the rigorous, almost invasive, drug-testing policies our U.S. track and field athletes must endure if they are going to be a member of the national team.

Each athlete is required to fill out a daily calendar three months in advance, informing NADA of his or her whereabouts. And they are subject to being tested 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

Bowie told of a woman knocking on her door in Clermont, Florida, where the U.S. team trains. The woman was there to collect a urine sample. Bowie had just used the bathroom.

The woman had to sit there for a couple of hours while Bowie drank water as fast as she could. When Bowie was finally able to produce a sample, the woman followed her into the bathroom.

“That was a bit uncomfortable,” Bowie laughed during our interview. “But now I’ve had the same test conductor my entire time with the team, so it’s become not a big deal.”

If Bowie gets a cold and goes to the drugstore to buy cough syrup or a decongestant, she must check the NADA website and the label of the medication to make sure no banned substance is included. If she is in doubt, there is a number she can call and receive advice on the spot.

I asked her if she ever got tired of being monitored so closely.

“You get used to it,” she said. “And in the big picture, it’s all worth it to make sure everybody on our team is doing things the right way.”

That is all she’s ever wanted.

“To do things the right way and take no shortcuts,” she said. “Because I know shortcuts lead to nowhere.”

She chuckled and said she was “naive” about doping when she turned pro.

“I had never heard anything about that at USM,” she said, “and I think you could say just recently I’ve become educated on the subject. I’ve talked to different athletes on the circuit. Just small talk. Not really about other athletes, but about the drugs and the different rules in place.”

I asked her if she had ever stepped on the track at a meet and felt like the person in the lane next to her was doping.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced a situation like that,” she said. “I try not to have an opinion or think about it when I go out on the track. I focus on the race at hand.

"And I know, in the end, actions have consequences.”

She said winning the U.S. championships in June at Eugene, Oregon, was “like I was dreaming.” Eighty meters into the race, Bowie knew she was about to pass her top contender, English Gardner.

“After 90 meters I was by her, and I sorta started celebrating before I even crossed the finish line,” she said. “It was incredible. I felt like Superwoman.”

Now she understands why her father used to challenge his friends. “I bet you can’t outrun my daughter,” he would say.

“I was 13 or 14, and he would have me running against these grown men — and I’d always beat them,” she said. “I guess that’s when I realized I was pretty fast. Plus, I raced against my male cousins; I played basketball with my male cousins. I was always competing against older athletes who took no pity on me.”

It’s a well-known story that Bowie’s mother bailed on raising her and her sister. Their grandmother, Bobbie Smith, agreed to take them in.

“My grandmother is extremely wise and makes you feel like you can climb any mountain you set your sights on,” Bowie says. “She has meant so much to me that I don’t even regret not having both parents in my life. My grandmother has been a great role model and has sacrificed so much for us.”

Bowie, who is sponsored by Adidas, has another week at home in Mississippi before heading back to Florida to begin training.

“But I’ll be back home for Christmas,” she said. “I missed my first Thanksgiving at home last year. A bunch of us got together and tried to make it a good one, but it just wasn’t the same. It’s a good feeling, knowing I’ll be back here for the holidays.

“Meanwhile, there is a lot of work to be done. This can be a big year for me.”